Hammond joined the medical equipment manufacturers Speywood Laboratories Ltd in 1977, becoming a director of Speywood Medical Limited in 1981.[4] In 1982, an automatic electrocardiograph electrode manufacturing plant figured among his notable achievements. He left in 1983 and, from 1984, served as a director in Castlemead Ltd.

From 1993 to 1995, he was a partner in CMA Consultants and, from 1994, a director in Castlemead Homes.[5] He had many business interests including house building and property, manufacturing, healthcare, and oil and gas. He undertook various consulting assignments in Latin America for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and was a consultant to the Government of Malawi from 1995 until his election to Parliament.

In 2009 it emerged that Hammond had claimed just £8 short of the maximum allowance for a second home in London from 2007 to 2008 even though he lived in the commuter belt town of Woking. As a result of this criticism Hammond says he would pay back any profit on the future sale of his second home to the public purse.[6]

In government (2010–)

Secretary of State for Transport

Hammond was appointed Secretary of State for Transport following the formation of the Coalition Government on 12 May 2010, a position he held until 14 October 2011. On 28 September 2011, he announced that the Government was to initiate a consultation later that year on raising the speed limit on motorways from 70 mph to 80 mph, with a view to introducing the new limit in 2013.[7]

In December 2011, he announced that women were to be allowed to serve on Royal Navy submarines. The first women officers began serving on Vanguard class submarines in late 2013. They will be followed by female ratings in 2015, when women should also begin serving on the new Astute class submarine.[9] It was also confirmed that the cost of the Libyan operations was £212 million – less than was estimated – including £67 million for replacing spent munitions, is all expected to be met from HM Treasury's reserve.[10] At the start of Britain's military intervention in Libya, Chancellor George Osborne told MPs it was likely to cost tens of millions of pounds, raised to £260 million by the MoD as the action continued over the summer.

In January 2012 the Ministry of Defence announced 4,200 job cuts in a second round of armed forces redundancies. The Army will see up to 2,900 job cuts, including 400 Gurkhas, while the RAF will lose up to 1,000 members and the Royal Navy up to 300. The job losses will account for some of the cuts announced under the Defence Review – intended to help plug the £38 billion hole in the defence budget left by the previous government. Hammond said the Government had "no choice but to reduce the size of the Armed Forces – while reconfiguring them to ensure they remain agile, adaptable and effective". Hammond said: "As we continue with the redundancy process we will ensure we retain the capabilities that our Armed Forces will require to meet the challenges of the future."[11]

The £38 billion "black hole" in MoD finances has been "dealt with" and the Department's "hand to mouth existence will come to an end", Hammond stated in February 2012. Ministers had even found £2.1 billion to be allocated to several major spending projects to be announced in the coming weeks. The money was to come from a combination of draconian cuts over the previous two years, tough bargaining with industry and a one per cent increase in the equipment budget. All three Services will benefit from the new-found cash that will be announced in the next wave of spending proposals – known as Planning Round 12 – by early next month. "New equipment and support contracts amounting to billions of pounds are likely to be unveiled," said a senior MoD official. "PR12 is expected to signal a change in culture at the MoD".[12]

In February 2012 Hammond said that the Falkland Islands do not face a "current credible military threat" from Argentina. He added that Britain had "no desire or intention to increase the heat" surrounding their sovereignty. Speaking in the House of Commons he said "despite media speculation to the contrary, there has been no recent change to force levels", adding "there is no evidence of any current credible military threat to the security of the Falkland Islands and therefore no current plan for significant changes to force deployments. However, Her Majesty's Government is committed to defending the right of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination and plans exist for rapid reinforcement of the land, sea and air forces in and around the islands, should any such threat appear."[13]

Hammond meeting British troops in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

In August 2012 Hammond announced that senior positions within the "top-heavy" military would be cut by a quarter. Around 26 civilian and military head office posts will go and a new senior structure will come in from April 2013. The move is expected to save the Ministry of Defence around £3.8 million a year. Hammond said one in four posts from the ranks of commodore, brigadier, air commodore and above will go. Hammond said: "at a time when we are making difficult decisions about defence spending and have had to accept reductions across the board, we cannot ignore the volume of posts at the top. For too long the MoD has been top-heavy, with too many senior civilians and military. Not only does this new structure reduce senior staff posts by up to a quarter in the next two years, but it allows clear strategic priorities to be set for the Armed Forces".[14]

Four weeks before the London Olympic Games of 2012 the security company G4S announced it could not provide the number of security staff it had originally undertaken to deploy for the Games. Hammond solved the problem by calling-up 5,000 members of the Armed Forces making good the shortfall. Their performance attracted widespread praise. Afterwards Hammond told The Independent the issue had taught him an important lesson: "I came into the MoD with a prejudice that we have to look at the way the private sector does things to know how we should do things in Government", he said. "But the story of G4S and the military rescue is quite informative. I'm learning that the application of the lean commercial model does have relevance in areas of the MoD but, equally, you can't look at a warship and say, 'How can I bring a lean management model to this?' – because it's doing different things with different levels of resilience that are not generally required in the private sector."[15]

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

On 15 July 2014, Hammond was appointed Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. Newspapers highlighted his "Eurosceptic" credentials, and his confidence that Britain could "get a deal" on reforming the European Union. He has said he would vote in a putative referendum for a British exit from the European Union unless there were changes in the relationship.[16]

In August 2014, Hammond said he was surprised at the sudden resignation of Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi, who wrote of "great unease" under his leadership of the Foreign office.[17]

In March 2015, speaking as the minister responsible for the intelligence agencies, he suggested that terror "apologists" must share blame in terrorist acts, saying "But a huge burden of responsibility also lies with those who act as apologists for them."[18]

On 8 July 2015, Hammond condemned the defeat by Russia at the UN Security Council of his four-page draft resolution S/2015/508,[19] that was inter alia to apply the genocide label to the Srebrenica massacre of Muslim Bosniaks in 1995.[20] Angola, China, Nigeria and Venezuela abstained,[21] while the draft had been proposed by Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.[19] The Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, criticised the British wording as "confrontational and politically-motivated", arguing that it unfairly singled out Bosnian Serbs for committing war crimes in a conflict in which all three ethnic groups were the victims of atrocities.[20] Hammond stated that: "We are disappointed that our Resolution to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Srebrenica was vetoed today."[22]

Hammond wants to reduce migration from Poland and other European Union countries, especially from the former Eastern Bloc.[26] Hammond made the snap decision to comment on the United Nations findings regarding the detainment of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy on 6 February 2016 as "ridiculous". The United Nations panel had earlier ruled Mr Assange was being "arbitrarily detained, that his detention should be brought to an end, and he be compensated". Hammond's comment not only insulted the highest world court, to which Britain is a signatory, but undermined Britain's Foreign Department and his own credibility.[27]Mads Andenæs commented, "When countries respond in this way, they damage the respect for the rule of law and the United Nations."[28] Discussing the Working Group's decision, Liora Lazarus, Fellow of St. Anne's College and an Associate Professor in Law at Oxford University, concluded that "[it] cannot fairly be described as 'ridiculous', 'ludicrous', or 'so wrong'."[29]Human Rights Watch said Hammond's response was "deplorable", adding that it was "not what one expects from democratic governments who usually support the UN mechanisms and international law."[30] "Obviously, the British do not practice what they preach to us here as well as other international forums regularly," said Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a former Sri Lankan defence secretary, before noting the UK rejection could not have occurred at a better time for Sri Lanka, which is facing a war crimes inquiry.[31]

Other political positions

2008 financial crisis

In May 2012, Hammond said that banks were not solely responsible for the 2008 financial crisis as "they had to lend to someone". Hammond, part of the team which played a key role in drawing up David Cameron's economic strategy in Opposition, also claimed that people who took out loans were "consenting adults" who, in some cases, were now seeking to blame others for their actions. Speaking in Germany, he went on to say, "People say to me, 'it was the banks'. I say, 'hang on, the banks had to lend to someone'. People feel in a sense that someone else is responsible for the decisions they made. Of course, if banks don't offer credit, people can't take it, [But] there were two consenting adults in all these transactions, a borrower and a lender, and they may both have made wrong calls. Some people are unwilling to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own choices". He added that individuals, companies and governments were all guilty of excessive borrowing: "we allowed our expectations to run away with us," Mr Hammond said. "We started living a lifestyle both in private consumption and in public consumption that we could not afford. We borrowed to top it up … now the day of reckoning has come and we are adjusting."[32]

Same-sex marriage

In May 2012, Hammond said same-sex marriage is "too controversial".[33] In January 2013 during a visit to Royal Holloway, University of London he bracketed the tabled legislation, which was passed afterwards, alongside socially unacceptable relationships, at the upper scale of which he stated was the criminal offence of incest. Asked by PinkNews to clarify his remarks, Hammond wrote by email: "The discussion ranged very widely and was not limited to same sex relationships".[33]

In May 2013 Philip Hammond abstained as one of four Cabinet Ministers not to vote in favour of gay marriage.[34] Hammond has been openly critical of the Prime Minister's approach to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 and said in November 2013 that he was "shocked" at the speed with which it was pushed through and that it is "damaging" to the Conservative Party.[35]

Personal life

Hammond married Susan Carolyn Williams-Walker on 29 June 1991. They have two daughters and a son,[36][37] and live in Send, Surrey, with another home in London. Hammond's wealth is estimated as £9 million.[38]